We will develop a platform for crowdfunding resources for planting tree saplings. A sapling or a bunch of saplings in some cases will be represented by a Cardano NFT to be issued to those who pledge the resource. Gamification aspects will promote engagement from users.
This platform will be for individuals, businesses, NGOs, environmentalists and farmers to engage through a common medium to channelise resources for afforestation as well as use the resulting NFTs representing goodwill or social credit.
How does it work?
At a high level, the parties involved in this solution are
- Those undertaking afforestation activities
- Samaritans who donate the resources for the saplings
- The online dApp platform acts as an intermediary to connect the supply and demand side and drive engagement.
Ancillary players include 3rd party NFT marketplaces who can play a role since these NFTs are tradable.
Those undertaking afforestation activity can onboard the platform and publish their needs for resources on the platform. In the first phase, the onboarding process will involve manual interaction between platform support team and entities onboarded.
The platform morphs these requirements into NFTs for presenting to users on the supply side of the resources.
Willing members of the community can crowdfund the required resources for each afforestation campaign by purchasing the NFTs. When you donate to projects of your liking, not only do you feel great but you also earn NFT(s) representing your goodwill. Similarly, generous companies, charities can further support afforestation by bridging funding shortages and where relevant companies can opt in to use their CSR funds too in this regard.
A visual representation: https://res.cloudinary.com/reshm/image/upload/v1647167645/Catalyst%20Fund%208/NFT_afforestation_n7dt9u.jpg
Components of the platform:
- Website: Allows discovery of various campaigns for afforestation with details of the entity or individuals who are facilitating the planting. This is the supply side of financial resources. On the demand side, it allows campaign creators to publish afforestation campaigns.
- NFT minter: This will mint the NFTs that represent one or a group of sapling depending on the afforestation campaign it represents. The NFT minter will be using cardano-cli at this time. Once a fully functional Plutus Application Backend (PAB) is released we would look to use smart contacts for improving the efficiency of minting (in terms of ease/automation) wherever feasible.
- Marketplace: Discover the NFTs associated with published campaigns for afforestation drives. Users can buy NFTs to signify their pledge for planting sapling(s).
- A communication channel for the community to get together and interact. The communication channel will be external to the website as of now. In future, value added features like discussion forums can be added.
- Reporting module that provides details about activity for each user and at aggregate levels.
Gamification
- The NFTs will contain in the metadata of its minting transaction properties, type of tree that it will fund, ecological benefits and rarity of the species, the approximate geocode of the location of the sapling. Representing a real work entity with properties these NFTs as such might attain considerable trade worthiness. The price of the NFT will reflect the cost of planting the sapling.
- There will be tags and badges designed around each campaign that will be awarded to those who donate by way of NFT purchase. A profile section will be developed which will illustrate the goodwill earned by the user based on the properties linked to their donation. We might call it ‘ecological credits’.
Growing the Cardano community
We want to grow the Indian Cardano community through this initiative centered around afforestation. Community involvement is going to be key for the long term success of this project.
The use of tradable NFTs with gamification is intended to boost overall attraction. A communication channel will be created for interested members of the community to know about the project, provide suggestions and take up roles if they would like to volunteer.
We think that bringing together people in such a way will promote ideation and energize efforts towards conservation of the environment.
Transparency & propriety
It is to be ensured that the platform prevents scams and cases of misappropriation of funds raised. In this regard, only registered NGO/charities/companies/farmer’s associations etc will be onboarded on the demand side for undertaking afforestation activities.
At the same time, it might be possible that eventually the platform can start to work on a trusted model where anyone can participate as handler of funds raised. For example: Any individual may offer to grow and nurture trees in their backyard sponsored by NFTs. Community members who choose to can contribute. We envision this to become feasible at a later stage.
Regulations in India with respect to taxation of income from digital assets have to be adhered to and for ensuring that the platform follows the government regulations, processes involved in resources mobilization will be legally vetted.
Our motivation
-
Some of our team members have been developing in Cardano for a while and we are looking forward to bringing together at least a group of the community members in India centered around real life use cases and social utility with projects built on Cardano.
-
We care about preserving the environment and we feel this project gives an ingenious way to call attention of people towards afforestation and towards Cardano.
-
We are inspired by the Cardano Forest initiative from Veritree and we would like to achieve similar outcomes in India while catering to local specificities and by engaging existing entities working to improve the environment.
-
There are NGOs that work to promote and raise funds for afforestation. However the initiatives often do not have the mechanism to attract sponsors or reach out to individuals and are instead based on voluntary donations. By leveraging the amusement of NFTs we would like to tilt the scale of supply and demand by providing those who might pledge resources more reasons to do so.
Impact created:
- Improve the quality of the environment with a dApp platform for afforestation on top of Cardano . Contribute the quality of soil and agriculture by supporting initiatives like agro-forestry.
- Demonstrate the applicability of Cardano NFTs with real life implications. When NFTs represent 'living trees' and improve the environment we live in they are more meaningful.
- Promote positive sentiment about use of blockchain technology with focus on Cardano, among the society and government. Cryptocurrency has been a controversial topic of late, especially in India. It has become infamous due to widespread marketing or meme coins and incidents of scams. The Indian government has been mulling regulatory action while highlighting that its stand is not against blockchain technology. This project will highlight social and environmental utility with limelight on Cardano.
- Grow the Indian Cardano community. This project reaches out to sections of the society that may otherwise not learn about blockchain and Cardano. The target population of the platform is wider than just tech savvy people and includes people from all walks of life. The gamification features are intended to boost and prolong community engagement.
Future scope:
- Though this proposal focuses on India under this challenge, the platform once developed is agnostic to geography. It can be scaled to other countries as well. In essence it brings together multiple sides of the society with a Cardano NFT based marketplace platform acting as the intermediary.
- The project can be expanded to various environment restoration projects. If we are successful in achieving the desired result, we would indeed scope in a plan to expand to initiatives like lake reclamation, wildlife and habitat conservation, tackling environmental pollution etc.
The challenge KPI this project is directly aligned with is 'Number of Indian focused dapps/services actually built'. The NFT marketplace component of this proposal is a dApp. The platform as such is a service that uses Cardano blockchain.
Indirectly, the success of this project will increase the popularity of Cardano and contribute to the other KPIs related to Indian focussed projects and interaction with Catalyst.
Adverse regulatory changes after the commencement of the project can impact our scheme of implementation of this project. Even though we recognise this as a risk, recently the government has announced rates for tax on income from digital assets. This move is reckoned to be a positive signal for building with blockchain.